評論
打印
Is there life beyond Earth in our solar system?
在地球以外，太陽系里還有生命嗎？
Wow, what a powerful question.
哇，多么擲地有聲的問題！
You know, as a scientist -- planetary scientist -- we really didn't take that very seriously until recently.
作為一名科學家--行星科學家--我們很久以來都沒有認真的考慮過這個問題。
Carl Sagan always said, "It takes extraordinary evidence for extraordinary claims."
卡爾·薩根常說，“非凡的斷言需要有非凡的證據”。
And the claims of having life beyond Earth need to be definitive,
地球之外有生命的斷言必須是明確的，
they need to be loud and they need to be everywhere for us to be able to believe it.
必須是響亮的，還需要證據充分，這樣我們才會相信。
So how do we make this journey?
那么，我們要如何開始這段旅行呢？
What we decided to do is first look for those ingredients for life.
我們決定首先去尋找生命的基本要素。
The ingredients of life are: liquid water -- we have to have a solvent, can't be ice, has to be liquid.
生命的基本要素是：液態水--我們需要溶劑，不能是冰，必須是液態的。
We also have to have energy.
我們還需要能量。
We also have to have organic material -- things that make us up,
有機物質也是必不可少的--這些都是組成我們的生命體，
but also things that we need to consume.
以及供我們消耗的東西。
So we have to have these elements in environments for long periods of time for us to be able to be confident that life,
環境中必須長期存在這些元素，才會讓我們相信：
in that moment when it starts, can spark and then grow and evolve.
生命在誕生的那一刻能夠迸發出火花，并且能夠成長和演變。
Well, I have to tell you that early in my career, when we looked at those three elements,
我必須坦白，在我職業生涯早期，當我們研究這三個要素時，
I didn't believe that they were beyond Earth in any length of time and for any real quantity.
我并不相信它們能在地球之外存在足夠長的時間，或達到足夠的規模。
